Norwich Leap

Norwich Leap

Leap was founded in 2008 by Barry Allard when Norwich City Council was awarded funding from central government under the Enhanced Housing Options Trailblazer initiative. The funding award was given to look innovatively at ways of reducing homelessness by addressing multiple needs – investing effort into attitudinal change, developing resilience and adjusting behaviour for the long term.

We incorporate employment, education and training with accommodation opportunities. After two years of achieving strong results we were awarded Reaching Communities Big Lottery Funding for three years. This enabled us to expand the team and Leap became part of St Martin’s Housing Trust, which has over 40 years’ experience of working with the most marginalised groups.

In January 2015 we were awarded continuation funding from Big Lottery Reaching Communities Grant for a further three years through St Martins Housing Trust. Norwich City Council continued their strong support with partnership and financial backing. This milestone has provided us with the opportunity to reflect on everything that we have achieved and to focus on where we would like to go in the future.

In January 2018 the Big Lottery funding comes to an end, as does the partnership with St Martins Housing Trust. However, Leap will continue.

In March 2014, to secure its legacy, Leap registered a Community Interest Company which traded as The Feed. In January 2018, the Leap project will move from St Martins Housing Trust to The Feed.

Norwich City Council have committed to supporting Leap until 2019, and we continue to have a strong partnership with LetNCC which enables us to help people access private rental sector accommodation.

We are also seeking funding for Leap to continue our work with everyone in Norwich who faces disadvantage.